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A Realistic Rendezvous? Chicago’s Rabbi Oscar Fasman and New York Orthodox Judaism

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

Chief Academic Officer of Hebrew Theological CollegeScholar of American Jewish History

For decades, Orthodox Judaism in Chicago developed in "parallel" to New York Orthodoxy. Often, Hebrew Theological College in Chicago viewed the New York based Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary as a rival more than a partner. In the 1950s and 1960s,

Rabbi Oscar Fasman took important steps to help unite these two Orthodox communities. This “rendezvous” took on peculiar forms that had a lasting impact on Orthodox Judaism in the United States.